Chapter 744: Understanding [4]

Chapter 744: Chapter 459: Understanding [4]

As it turned out, Hu Qi’s assessment was correct.

Before long, the venom in Ired’s eyes faded, replaced by pleading and terror.

Seeing this, Hu Qi finally stopped.

At this moment, dark red bloodstains soaked the floor, and the thick, metallic stench hung stagnant in the sealed room.

Ired’s once burly, bear-like frame now looked unnervingly thin, because all his excess flesh had been precisely stripped away.

Hu Qi’s technique with the blade was incredibly steady. Each cut perfectly carved away fat and muscle while flawlessly avoiding all vital points.

Had a senior anatomist been present, they would have marveled at this masterpiece, a work of art in its own right.

A good portion of Ired’s body had been turned into a meticulous anatomical specimen, his bones and sinews laid bare in excruciating detail.

Not a shred of superfluous flesh remained on the stark white skeleton; every single tendon was clearly exposed to the air.

However, for this “living specimen,” it was undoubtedly a form of torture straight out of Purgatory.

The intense pain twisted his face beyond recognition as a broken plea squeezed from his throat.

“Kill… kill me… I’m begging you!”

His chest heaved violently, his gaze toward Hu Qi filled with abject begging.

He no longer held any hope of surviving Hu Qi’s ordeal. All he wanted was a quick death to end the suffering.

Hu Qi’s expression was indifferent. He didn’t answer immediately, instead slowly wiping his Dagger with a strip of cloth.

The blade didn’t even have a single nick, a testament to the Dagger’s fine quality.

“Answer my questions honestly.”

His voice was flat.

“And maybe I’ll consider giving you a quick end.”

“Fine… Fine, just ask…”

Ired’s voice was barely a whisper.

“First question.”

Hu Qi let out a soft chuckle.

“Why frame Elu and the other two? Why were you so insistent on carrying out the execution by fire?”

Ired answered without hesitation.

“Because… my profession is Fire Torturer… I can advance by performing a ritual of burning sinners…”

At this point, he paused, as if he’d realized something.

His remaining eye fixed on Hu Qi.

“What I never expected, though, was that a Professional would be willing to disguise himself as a villager.”

He said this, having clearly figured out that Hu Qi himself was Elu.

Although Hu Qi was wearing a Disguise,

everything he had done, combined with his unique fighting style and Rock’s Dagger, was more than enough to prove his identity.

Hu Qi remained noncommittal and ignored the comment.

He was more concerned about something else.

“Tell me everything you know about Professionals.”

“You don’t know about Professionals.”

Hearing Hu Qi’s question, Ired’s expression faltered.

He seemed to have realized something.

SWISH!

The next second, a flash of the blade glinted.

Ired felt a sharp pain in his cheek.

A piece of his flesh went flying.

“I ask the questions, you give the answers. No nonsense. If I find out you’re lying to me…”

Hu Qi’s expression was calm.

The implication was obvious.

At this, Ired recalled the agony of being flayed piece by piece and didn’t dare delay any longer.

He hurriedly poured out everything he knew about Professionals.

As Ired spoke, Hu Qi began to form a basic understanding of this world’s Extraordinary System.

This world’s Extraordinary Path was followed by those known as Professionals.

These Professionals were distinctly different from the other Extraordinary Systems he had encountered before.

It was like a video game.

Everyone could choose a different class path.

Each class path had different Traits.

The tiers of advancement were called Sequences.

They ranged from lowest to highest, Sequence Nine to Sequence One.

For a Professional to increase their strength, besides their daily Cultivation Meditation Technique, they also needed to consume a specially formulated Magic Potion exclusive to their path.

Then, they had to perform a specific ritual and meet certain requirements to advance and change classes.

For example, the Professional Sequence that Ired had mastered was called Fire Torturer.

The initial rank was Sequence Nine, Arsonist.

To advance from an ordinary person and enter the Sequence, certain requirements had to be met.

Besides consuming the Magic Potion and practicing the Meditation Method, one had to fulfill the advancement requirement for the Arsonist:

They had to light a bonfire five meters high, let it burn for an entire night, and sit before it, staring directly into the flames.

During this time, the fire could not go out, and they could not look away.

The purpose was to prove one’s desire for and focus on fire, using the aid of the Magic Potion and Meditation Method to establish a preliminary resonance with the Extraordinary Traits during the ritual.

After a successful advancement, one would become a Sequence Nine Arsonist.

They could then control fire to a certain extent for both attack and defense.

The drawback was that they couldn’t create fire, only manipulate existing sources.

However, this advancement was not guaranteed to succeed.

Sequence advancement placed high demands on a Professional’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit. If they didn’t meet the requirements, or if other problems arose,

the advancement would fail.

The consequences were extremely severe.

Take the failure of advancing to the Arsonist Sequence, for example.

Upon failure, the Professional’s Spirit would collapse, and they would spontaneously combust, burning to death.

As for the Sequence after Sequence Nine Arsonist, it was called Fire Torturer.

Upon reaching this stage,

the Professional’s control over fire would become much stronger, completely eliminating the need for an external source.

They would be more than twice as powerful as a Sequence Nine Arsonist.

To advance,

the ritual requirement was no longer just lighting a bonfire.

Instead, they needed to pass judgment on thirty sinners, make them confess their crimes with their own mouths, and then execute them by fire.

Only then could the ritual be completed.

When performing the ritual,

it didn’t matter if the Professional was present, nor did it matter if the convicts were actually guilty.

What mattered was that the person personally confessed to their crime and that no fewer than ten people were present to witness the execution by fire.

This explained why his original self and the other two, who had clearly done nothing wrong, were suddenly slapped with baseless accusations.

Ired’s current Realm was that of a Sequence Nine Arsonist Professional.

What he was doing was preparing for the ritual to advance to Fire Torturer.

According to Ired,

he had already successfully burned ten people to death using this method.

As a Sequence Nine, Ired could only use the fire from the fireplace to attack.

If he had been allowed to advance to Fire Torturer,

even with a surprise attack, it would have been highly unlikely for Hu Qi to win so easily.

Afterward, Hu Qi asked a few other questions.

To these, Ired held nothing back, telling him everything he knew.

Of course, it was up to Hu Qi to determine the truthfulness of this information.

However, the man was, after all, just a Sheriff, and his strength was only that of a Sequence Nine Professional who had just recently touched upon the Extraordinary.

His knowledge of Professionals was limited.

There were some questions Hu Qi asked that Ired simply couldn’t answer.

Soon, as time passed, the commotion outside gradually died down. It seemed the fire had been brought under control.

Inside the room, Hu Qi stopped his interrogation.

He glanced at Ired.

The man’s face was even paler now,

but he still showed no signs of dying.

The reason for this

was, on one hand, that Hu Qi hadn’t struck any vital points that would cause major bleeding.

On the other hand, it was due to Ired’s status as a Professional, granting him a powerful Life Force far beyond that of an ordinary person.

Finally, amid Ired’s pleading gaze,

Hu Qi plunged his hand directly into the man’s body.

“Urk…”

The intense pain made Ired’s eyes bulge.

He was just about to curse Hu Qi for going back on his word,

but in the next second, his expression was as if he’d seen a ghost.

“You… what did you do to me?”

He could clearly feel the Extraordinary Traits of the Sequence Nine Arsonist inside him rapidly draining away.

They were flowing toward the man before him.

‘He’s absorbing my Extraordinary Traits.’

The moment this thought arose,

he tried to say something,

but found that his strength was fading.

A moment later.

Modification Point +19 (5%)

A line of text appeared before his eyes.

Hu Qi stood up.

At that moment, the terrible burns on his body had all completely healed.

Even the scars had peeled away, revealing fair skin underneath.

Where Ired had been, his body had shrunk once more, turning into a desiccated corpse.

All of the man’s Vitality and Extraordinary Traits had been plundered by Hu Qi using the Heaven-Seizing Technique.

However, compared to plundering Rock and those militiamen before,

this had undoubtedly taken much longer.

But that was to be expected.

After all, as a Transcendent, he was no ordinary person.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, the nearly extinguished embers in the nearby fireplace flared up. A tongue of dark red flame shot out like a living creature, obediently coiling around Hu Qi’s palm and forming a floating Fireball.

He stared at the dancing flame, a strange light reflecting in the depths of his eyes.

‘Interesting. So this is the power of an “Arsonist”?’